Beautiful Days
by Unify
Summary: All secrets must come to light eventually, but Chihiro Fujisaki never intended it to turn out like this. Set Pre-Despair, ChiMondo.


**My first fanfiction... Chihiro is a male in this story, but I'll be using female pronouns when he's around people who don't know about it.**

**There's not much else to say, so let's get to it.**

* * *

Mondo reclined in his seat, his feet propped up onto the table. For anyone else, today was just like any other day, but not for him.

It had all started at the beginning of the year, where he had been stuck in a group assignment with Ishimaru and Chihiro, two of the best students in the class. Predictably, the other two were forced to do the bulk of the work but by the end of the project he decided he liked them enough to continue to spend time around them, and despite their differences they had somehow become friends over the course of the year.

He looked to the front of the classroom, focusing his attention on the back of the pristine white uniform worn by the Super High School Level Hall Monitor. Kiyotaka Ishimaru was an odd one; loud and stubborn, followed (and enforced) the rules to the letter, and strangely enough insisted on everyone calling him by his surname, something which Mondo assumed had been done at his previous school.

While normally someone Mondo would have vehemently disliked, he had to admit he had gained some respected the hall monitor's dedication to following the rules but it still had taken them an... incident involving a sauna to bring them together as friends.

Still, it was apparently not enough to get the man to loosen up a little, as Mondo had not yet been successful in convincing him to start sitting up the back of the classroom so they could talk more.

His eyes followed Ishimaru's arm as he pointed to something in the book of the student sitting next to him, Chihiro Fujisaki. Perhaps the most doted on student in the school, to this day Mondo was still shocked that he had somehow become friends with her - girls like her normally avoided him (out of fear? he had never bothered to find out), but it was actually Chihiro who had made an effort to continue to spend time with him after the project was done despite her shyness.

He watched as Chihiro said something in response to Ishimaru, before leaning over a little in his direction so she could get a good look at whatever was written in his book. Shy, helpful and extremely short, Chihiro was pretty much his polar opposite.

It made conversation between them difficult at times as they had virtually nothing in common, but they still were able to discuss school, and although she always made an effort to break up the arguments that often broke out between himself and Ishimaru, Mondo was pretty sure that she secretly enjoyed listening to them.

At any rate, he had become progressively more fond of Chihiro until eventually he decided to ask the programmer to a date, and after weeks of putting it off had resolved one morning to ask her out that day. That morning had been earlier today, and now he was in a situation he had not been in for a very long time.

He, Mondo Oowada, was nervous.

He sighed, shifting his position again as beside him Leon turned in his seat, finally fed up with Mondo's restlessness.

"Hey man, what's up with you today? You won't stop sighing, and it's really starting to piss me off." Leon asked, casting him an irritated look.

"It's nothing." He replied evasively. "I just can't get comfortable."

Leon looked at the gang leader doubtfully. "You really think I'm gonna buy that?"

_Damn_. If even Leon could see through him, he really needed to work on his lying skills.

Making a mental note to ask Celes for advice later, he pulled his feet off the table and sat normally, motioning for Leon to come closer.

"Look, I didn't want to talk about this," He murmured hesitantly, "But I was thinking of asking someone out today. After this class."

"I suppose that explains a lot." Leon said thoughtfully. "So, who is it?"

Mondo looked away. He was reluctant to tell Leon, but he supposed he had to at some point. "...Chihiro."

Leon's eyes widened at his words. "Chihiro!?"

His shout attracted the attention of the entire classroom, including the aforementioned programmer, who turned in her seat at the front of the class to regard the two of them curiously.

Mondo decided the best course of action would be to play it cool, remaining silent and giving the programmer a casual nod. Still evidently confused, she looked as if she was about to say something but her attention was brought back to her work by Ishimaru.

He returned his attention to the man sitting next to him. "What the fuck was that, Leon?" he growled. "If you need me to bust open your jaw, just ask next time."

Leon raised his hands defensively as Mondo cracked his knuckles to emphasise his point. "Sorry, dude. I was surprised, that's all."

"Hmph." Choosing not to respond, he crossed his arms and propped his feet back up onto the table. However, Leon was not done with the line of conversation.

"So why Chihiro, anyway? I mean she's cute, but I didn't think she was your type." Leon ventured carefully. He was not expecting to get much from the gang leader, but it was worth a try. Mondo levelled a glare at him in response.

"Leon. Drop it."

"Fine, fine. Whatever." He said, defeated. It seemed the gang leader was determined not to say anything, and he knew better than to push his luck.

Moving his hands to cradle the back of his head, he watched as Leon resumed doodling in his notebook, drawing what appeared to be a crude representation of a guitar.

He felt a little bad for being so snappy to his friend, but the baseball player had a surprising amount of interest in gossip and could be quite pushy about it unless Mondo shut him down, and this topic in particular was something he didn't want getting out.

Unfortunately for Mondo, secrecy wasn't one of his strong points as his conversation had been picked up by the sharp ears of Junko, who sat in the row in front of him.

She looked around, checking that Byakuya sitting next to her was engrossed in his book before turning to the girl sitting on the other side of her.

They made an odd pair, the outgoing fashionista and the ever calm lolita, but the two of them had managed to bond with each other over a shared love of cosmetics.

"Hey Celes, you heard that right? What do you think should we do?" She whispered, doing a much better job at being discreet than Mondo had.

Unsurprisingly, it had been much more difficult for Chihiro to hide his secret from his female classmates, and his actions had quickly become suspicious to Junko - not interested in typically girly things, reluctant to go to the girls bathroom, mysteriously absent whenever they had gym class.

She had eventually confronted him about it, and after some decidely overenthusiastic interrogation he had divulged his secret to her, but had forced her to promise not to tell anyone.

Of course, this was Junko. Promises of silence had never stopped her from gossiping about it, but she had felt bad enough for Chihiro that the only person she told was Celestia.

She gazed off into the distance, a grin spreading across her face as she recalled telling Celes about Chihiro's real gender. The sight of the girl's normally unshakeable composure breaking down was a memory that Junko intended to treasure forever.

Celes' calm voice brought her back to reality. "There is no need for you to get involved."

She frowned in response. "I know that... but isn't this like, entrapment or something?"

"No, Junko. There's nothing stopping Chihiro from rejecting him."

"C'mon Celes, remember who we're talking about. Chihiro wouldn't say no to anyone." She argued back. "Except maybe Hifumi. But he doesn't count."

"That is still not a good reason to go revealing other's secrets."

"But-"

"You have already broken Chihiro's trust once, Junko. It would be unwise to do so again." Celes cut her off, speaking with a cool smile.

Silently, Junko grit her teeth. It never failed to irritate her when she knew that the gambler was right, and it was something that occurred far too often for her liking.

"...Fine, whatever. We'll do nothing." Junko said sullenly. "I bet this isn't going to turn out well, though."

"As you wish. The loser has to buy the winner 2 sets of the new mascara that just came out."

"You're on." Realising what she had just said, she hastily corrected her mistake. She knew from experience that any bet with the Super High School Level Gambler was not going to turn out in her favour. "Wait, no! I didn't mean that!"

Unfortunately for Junko, the bell signalling lunch started to ring as she spoke. Celes shot her a smile. "Sorry, Junko. I didn't hear a word of what you just said." Collecting her belongings, Celes began to leave the room.

"I know you're lying, Celes! Get back here!" Cursing her habit of speaking without thinking, the fashion girl haphazardly grabbed her stuff and hurried out after her friend, her original purpose of trying to eavesdrop forgotten.

Mondo took his time organising his things, waiting for the other students to file out of the classroom while keeping a careful eye on Chihiro, who was conversing happily with Ishimaru in the front row.

Finally, the pair of them started to move towards the door. Mondo frowned at this development - he had hoped to catch the programmer alone, but their conversation showed no signs of ending, and he knew that if he didn't ask now he wouldn't be able to summon the nerve to do it later.

His eyes snapped to his left when Leon began to talk. He had been so wrapped up in thinking about Chihiro he had almost forgotten about the presence of the baseball player. "Oh, you wanna get her alone, right? Leave it to me."

With a grin and a thumbs up, Leon dashed across the room, yelling a greeting at Chihiro and Ishimaru before wrapping his arms around the latter's shoulders, dragging the hall monitor out of the room before he could protest.

He walked up to the programmer as she watched them go. "Hey, Chihiro." She turned to him, her belongings neatly bundled in her arms.

"Hello, Mondo... do you know what's up with Leon? He dragged off Ishimaru before I could say goodbye." As she spoke she glanced in the direction the two men had gone, looking slightly concerned.

"He was raving about something during class. Dunno what, I wasn't listening." This was of course another lie, but Chihiro seemed to accept it. Maybe he wasn't so bad at lying after all.

"You were... listening to our teacher instead?" Chihiro's large eyes opened a little wider in surprise. "Maybe Ishimaru is getting to you after all."

"Fuck no. What do you take me for?"

"Eheheh... Just kidding!" She spoke with a small laugh, but her expression quickly became thoughtful. "But if you weren't listening to the teacher, then... is there something bothering you, Mondo?"

_It's now or never_. "Kind of. There's something I wanted to ask you, actually." He said, looking away uncomfortably.

"I'll do my best to answer it." She exclaimed brightly, excited at the prospect of helping him. "What do you want to know?"

"Ah, how should I put this... I was wondering whether you would-" He began hesitantly, but stopped when Chihiro seemed to wilt under his gaze. "Chihiro?"

"There's no need to shout, Mondo..." She replied timidly, clasping her books to her chest tightly.

Mondo felt his face flush as he realised his voice had indeed been rapidly increasing in volume. He berated himself silently; it was something he did without noticing, but he also knew very well that Chihiro disliked it when he raised his voice.

"Sorry! I shout when I get nervous!" He took a deep breath, resuming speech at a normal volume. "Anyway... Did you wanna go out and get something to eat sometime?"

There. He said it. For a long moment Mondo shut his eyes tightly, but opened them again as he heard Chihiro speak.

He was confronted by the sight of Chihiro staring at him wide-eyed, with an expression he could not identify on her face. Mondo had never been good at reading people, but even he could tell it wasn't a positive one.

"You mean like... a date?" She choked out.

"Um... You can say no if you want. No pressure." He spoke nervously into the silence, still managing to keep the volume of his voice under control although he could feel his face slowly turning a deeper shade of red.

At his words, the expression disappeared in an instant and was instead replaced by a blush that crept across her pale face.

"No, it's alright... I'll go out with you." She cut herself off with a gasp, tears starting to brim in her eyes. "That wasn't enthusiastic enough, was it? I'm sorry, I've ruined everything already..."

"Hey, don't cry... You haven't ruined anything." He said hurriedly, alarmed at the prospect of making her cry. He breathed a sigh of relief as she brightened up again, giving him a radiant smile.

"Oh, thank goodness. I was really worried for a minute there." She quickly wiped away the water which had gathered in her eyes, returning to her normal pleasant demeanour. Sensing that Chihiro had nothing more to say, he changed the topic of conversation back to the date.

"So how about Friday, after school? We can meet outside the school gates." He suggested tentatively.

"Yes, that sounds wonderful! Eheheh... I'll be looking forward to it." She said happily, turning to leave the classroom. "Let's get some lunch, Mondo."

* * *

**Yay, OOC Mondo (and terrible excuses to call Ishimaru by his last name). Hopefully he'll be more in character in future chapters.**

**Next time: Mondo and Chihiro go on a date!**


End file.
